December 2011 - Good Morning Girls

Angela December 15, 2011

Winter GMG Enrollment Begins Today & A GMG Christmas Party at my house!

The fall session of Good Morning Girls ended last week so I invited my GMG friends (who all happen to live near me) to come over to my house for a Good Morning Girls Christmas party. What I LOVE about Good Morning Girls is it’s more than just keeping each other accountable to be in God’s Word, we form lasting friendships and when given the chance to get together many do. I’ve received tons of pictures of GMG groups getting together for play-dates, girls nights out or even traveling to see each other face-to-face! Its amazing the bond that can form when women start digging into God’s Word and sharing what they are learning!!!

Before the party started I decided to open my house to all of you as well…..by taking a few pictures. You are welcome here……come sit down, make yourself at home and I’ll grab you a piece of cake! I’m happy you’re joining us!

Please note, I did NOT make this cake!!! My husband and I love to shop at Costco and while you can find good deals there…..you can also pick up this delicious cake! Did you notice I didn’t even take off the plastic bottom?!!! The cake was so heavy I was afraid to!

Come sit down, this is my favorite chair in my house!

I love to add these Christmas ball ornaments throughout my house. Its a simple, easy way to add some color to any room.

My mantel- simple again, all the Christmas decorations I purchased at Target…another one of my favorite stores.

My staircase, I purchased this garland at Costco and just added the red Christmas ball ornaments to give the garland a little “pop”.

My FAVORITE place to sit with my family…..my kitchen table. For those of you who have seen some of my GMG videos…..you’ll recognize this spot! I love it in the winter because of the fireplace. I love it in the fall and spring because of the great breeze that comes in when I open the windows…but most importantly I love this spot because of the ones who sit around it.

I have my manger scene located in my kitchen right next to my table….it’s a great conversation piece and its actually plastic so my girls can play with it…although baby Jesus does tend to do some uncharacteristic things sometimes and Mary has to put him in timeout. Ha!

Well I hope you enjoyed my GMG Christmas party tour! Now lets get started forming your own GMG group! I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us this session!

Here’s a few IMPORTANT details:

1. RETURNING Good Morning Girls - please RE-enroll. We wiped clean the old message boards and start new every session. So in order for us to know who is out there and to get an accurate count – we ask that you re-enroll.

2. Ephesians Bible Study gals! Subscribe - We encourage you to subscribe to the feed of GoodMorningGirls.org. Our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posts will come into your email inbox so you never miss a day!

3. Ephesians Bible Reading Plan & SOAP Print-out sheets coming soon...

4. Can you have a Good Morning Girls group but opt out of the Ephesians Study? Yes, your group may already be in a Bible study together or each do your own thing! The Ephesians study is optional!

5. When do we start? You will begin emailing/Facebooking/Tweeting/texting your groups Sunday, January 15th is a warm-up day just to say “Hi”. The Ephesians Study Week 1 reading will begin on Monday, January 16th!

For NEWBIES! Here’s what you do:

1. Invite your friends to join your Good Morning Girls group - it runs from January 15th-April 15th. If you don’t like email – use Facebook, Twitter or texting!

2. Don’t have friends to invite? Go to the Message Board and find like-minded women there who have already started groups or start your own on there!

How to Enroll:

Click here – then go to the thread “ROLL CALL” and enter your name, city and state, and number of girls in your group.

Can you join the on-line study and not have a group? Absolutely!!! We welcome anyone who wants to join us to study God’s word and we invite you to leave a comment on this post if you are joining us without a group so we know you are here!!! We are curious to know how many follow along without a group (for future studies) - so please let us know you are here!!!

So let’s get Roll Call started! Are you in?

Love God Greatly!

Filed Under: Ephesians 90 Comments

Courtney December 9, 2011

Good Morning Girls Christmas Break!

The Fall Good Morning Girls session has come to an end.

We began this journey 12 weeks ago with nearly 3,000 girls! Angela and I have thoroughly enjoyed the I John study this fall and cannot wait to see God’s plan unfold this winter!

The next session begins on Monday, January 16th. You can begin enrolling your groups on December 15 (Please do not enroll before then. We will be deleting everything on the message boards soon to get ready for the next session.)

The session will run from January 15th to April 15th. (3 months)

If you are new to Good Morning Girls please watch the videos here . They will answer: What is Good Morning Girls? What are the details of Good Morning Girls? What if I don’t have my own group? and How does roll call work?

Now it is time for a Good Morning Girls Christmas Break! We want to strongly urge you to take a one month break from your group. I know that some of you do not want to stop…but after 4+ years of being in a Good Morning Girls group I have learned a few things.

1. We need a break – if we want to keep this group together long term.

2. If we don’t take a break- we end up burned out in the middle of the next session – been there done that.

3. If we don’t take a break, some of the ladies who want to drop out may not have the courage to quit. Then you have women in the group who don’t really want to be there and it’s discouraging to the rest of the group.

4. Taking a break allows ladies to leave guilt free – and makes room to invite new ladies into the group!

So we strongly encourage you to take a break - not from your quiet times – but from each other. Use the break to get together and have a luncheon or go out for coffee. Stay connected – but be free from the responsibility of every morning checking in.

In the meantime, we hope you will consider joining us this winter for the new study in Ephesians!

Merry Christmas Good Morning Girls…you will never know how much you all have blessed my heart.

Walk with the King!
Courtney, WomenLivingWell

Filed Under: I John Book Club 5 Comments

Angela December 6, 2011

{Week 12} WIWW Link-Up Party

For those of you visiting from Women Living Well today, welcome!! We are so glad you are here! Pull up a chair and make yourself at home.

We are SO excited for the upcoming winter GMG session and can’t wait to get started!!! Enrollment for the winter GMG session begins December 15th!

If you’re new to Good Morning Girls you might be asking what is it? Great question, glad you asked! “Good Morning Girls” are a group of Christian women who email, facebook, twitter or text messaging to keep each other accountable for their quiet times. For 3 years, I have been a part of a group of women who email each other each weekday after we have our quiet time. We say “Good Morning/Afternoon/Night” and then share what we read in our quiet time. Some of us have our quiet time first thing in the morning, while others squeeze it in during children’s naps or at bedtime.

Can you have a Good Morning Girls group but opt out of the Ephesians Study? Yes, your group may already be in another Bible study together or each do your own thing! The Ephesians study is optional!

When do we start? We will begin emailing/Facebooking/Tweeting or texting our groups Monday, January 16th.

For NEWBIES! Here’s what you do:

1. Invite your friends to join your Good Morning Girls group – it runs from January 15th-April 15th. Email each other every day Monday through Friday after having your morning quiet time. If you don’t like email – use Facebook, twitter or text messaging!

2. Don’t have friends to invite? Go to the Message Board after December 15th (message boards will soon be cleaned off for the upcoming session) and find like-minded women there who have already started groups or start your own on there!

3. When can I enroll? Enrollment will begin December 15th and you can enroll on our message board. We’d love to have you join us!

Can you join the on-line study and not have a group? Absolutely!!! We welcome anyone who wants to join us to study God’s word.

Are you in? We hope so. We’d LOVE for you to join us on this upcoming journey!

Love God Greatly!

______________________________________________________________________________________

Today is Wednesday….you know what to do!

Women around the world are IN THE WORD!

Every Wednesday we will have a link-up. If you are a blogger we invite you to link-up any blog posts that you have written about your quiet time that week. We ask that you put our button in the post or on your sidebar so we can find each other. We do not have code for this link up button. Just right click and save as. Then link it tohttp://www.goodmorninggirls.org

Filed Under: 1 - How To Enroll! 8 Comments

Angela December 4, 2011

{Week 12} He Hears Us & Winter Session Announcement

Last week in our 1 John Good Morning Girls study we read:

1 John 5:14- This is the confidence we have in approaching God:
that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

That one verse came alive for me a few weeks ago. I had been driving through the night with my 3 young daughters and mom, we had gotten a call from my uncle earlier that afternoon telling us my grandma was dying and we needed to come home as soon as possible. My grandma lived in Indiana and I live in Texas. We got on the road at 10 pm that night and drove straight through to Indiana. At 7 am the next day we got another call from my uncle saying he didn’t think we’d arrive before she passed. I was driving at the time and started to cry and pray…begging God to let me see her one last time. I so desperately wanted her to know that we were on our way, trying our hardest to get there as fast as we could. I wanted to tell her one last time how much I loved her and thank her for being such a wonderful grandma to me. As I was praying this and crying out to God, I drove through an underpass and there on one of the columns someone had spray painted “Trust Jesus”……ohhh how sweet God is to us when we are hurting and crying out to Him! He so encouraged me to have faith that we would indeed make it there in time…which we did! I was reminded on this trip that sometimes we feel the closest to God when we are hurting. He does hear our prayers!

I had always struggled with knowing if my grandma was truly saved. I have prayed for her for YEARS and as I was driving to Indiana, I continued to pray and ask God for proof that she was indeed saved. The day of the funeral was hard, my grandma had asked that I speak on her behalf, which I did…..but the ceremony was hard for me. After the ceremony was over, I made my rounds thanking people for coming and came upon a sweet little old man and his wife. The man turned out to be a retired pastor and his ministry in his retirement was to go to my grandma’s nursing home every Sunday and give a sermon. He told me that one Sunday a few years ago he had an alter call and that my grandma had received Jesus as her Savior! Can you believe that!!!! Ohhh the goodness of God! I’m so thankful for that sweet man’s ministry, I’m so thankful he and his wife came to my grandma’s funeral and shared that story with me and I’m so thankful that God allowed me to hear that story and thus answered my prayer. He hears our prayers!